Bill Text: HI SB2594 | 2024 | Regular Session | Amended

Hawaii Senate Bill 2594

Bill Title: Relating To The Department Of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-02-14 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDC/WAM. [SB2594 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-SB2594-Amended.html

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2594
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that according to a survey conducted by the department of Hawaiian home lands in 2022, more than twenty-eight thousand native Hawaiian beneficiaries are currently on the homestead lease waiting list. The legislature further finds that when beneficiaries on the homestead lease waiting list pass away prior to receiving a lease award, the beneficiary often loses the ability to have their heirs succeed to a lease.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to authorize the department of Hawaiian home lands under the sole discretion of the Hawaiian homes commission, to grant posthumous undivided interest lease awards directly to qualified successors of deceased beneficiaries who were on the waiting list; provided that the qualified successor shall be of at least twenty-five per cent Hawaiian blood quantum; provided further that the successor shall file a claim for a lease award within four years of the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 2. (a) This Act shall be known as the "Fred Keakaokalani Cachola Act".

(b) The department of Hawaiian home lands, at the sole discretion of the Hawaiian homes commission, may grant posthumous undivided interest lease awards directly to a successor of at least twenty-five per cent Hawaiian blood quantum of a deceased beneficiary who was on the waiting list; provided that the successor files a claim for a lease award within four years of the effective date of this Act.

(c) The department of Hawaiian home lands shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to administer this Act within two years of the effective date of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on either the date of the Secretary of the Interior's notification letter to the Congressional Committee Chairmen that this Act meets none of the criteria in title 43 Code of Federal Regulations section 48.20 necessitating Congressional approval, or on the date that the United States Congress's approval becomes law.

Report Title:

DHHL; Fred Keakaokalani Cachola Act; Beneficiaries; Lease Awards; Successors; Successorship Claims

Description:

Authorizes qualified successors of at least twenty-five percent Hawaiian blood quantum of beneficiaries on the waiting list who died before receiving a lease to file a claim for a lease award within four years of the effective date. Requires the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to adopt rules within two years of the effective date. Takes effect on either the date of the Secretary of the Interior's notification that congressional approval of this Act is unnecessary, or on the date of consent by the United States Congress. (SD1)

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